Small businesses featuring staffing of 2 or more employees should focus on providing a strong set of employee benefits to build a strong team, keep the best employees and lure in top workers. Due to the fact putting together a personal set of work benefits like health insurance and a strong 401k that are self-funded isn’t feasible for your average person, it turns out a strong benefits package may carry more value than high wages. Surveys bear this fact out. The fact is most employees want more benefits as opposed to increased compensation. Oddly though, it turns out that lots of employees do not make the most of their benefits package offered by their employers. This fact ends up hurting both the employee and the employer, due to the fact each one comes up short with respect to a better picture. Employees would be better off in several areas such as increased retirement savings and life insurance coverage in the event of an untimely death. Employers would be better off if more benefits were used because it would translate into a better picture for its employees and a more satisfied work force for the company. Featured below are a set of sure-fire strategies to motivate employees to take full advantage of all their benefits.
- Set Up a Series of Benefits Explanation Meetings – Ask any
employee out there in the work force what they know about their benefits
packages and only 5 out of 10 employees will be able to give you a decent
explanation. The other 5 employees are mostly in the dark about what their
benefits are and how to make the most of them. The best way to change this fact
is to hold a series of meetings to cover the benefits the company offers, the
value they provide and what to do next to sign up for them. - Review Benefits Monthly or Quarterly – Stop making benefits an
annual thing and start communicating about them the entire year. This can be
accomplished by sending out regular direct mail and emails to employees
covering benefits available and when enrollment is available. Additionally, staff
meetings, lunches and simple webinars could be used to communicate available
benefits, review packages and offer information or answer questions. - Set Up a Benefits Information Depot – Create a portal that
employees can log into to watch webinars or videos about the company’s benefits
packages. This portal should be available year-round, 24/7. Include other ways
to access the benefits packages such as downloadable PDFs, and PowerPoint slide
shows employees can save on their desktop so they can look and learn about the
company’s benefits packages.
Be sure
to let your employees know the benefits offered are being provided to improve
their lives and to make the company a place that support its staff with both
wages and a solid benefits package. Make certain you communicate the company
values them with respect to their well-being, health and work they provide.